Questions and Replies

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure

1. I have been informed by the Department that there are no costs of court orders that the Department of Public Works & Infrastructure has entered into to assist the Government to drive down costs with private service providers. However, the Department has incurred legal costs for a briefing of Senior and Junior Counsel to assist in bringing an urgent court application for spoliation against one landlord who illegally locked-out some client departments from leased premises and the costs thereof are still to be received from the Office of the State Attorney.

2. 

(a) The Department has undertaken a lease renegotiation drive for lease renewals with various landlords whose leases have expired or are about to expire; where user departments are still in occupation of such buildings. In this process, the Department relies on the following principles:

• All renewed lease agreements are aligned to the Rhode Report – which is an independent instrument that does market research to determine fair rentals for various areas around the country.
• Escalation is capped at 6% to manage the increase in rental rates annually.
• Negotiation of longer-term leases to increase our bargaining power to negotiate the lower rentals.
• Improved maintenance and tenant installations for such buildings where longer-term lease agreements have been successfully negotiated.

(b) In the medium term, the Department is implementing various strategies in order to reduce over-reliance on private leases and reduce the cost of leasing.

• • The Lease-to-own Strategy – Involves signing longer-term leases (more than the usual 9years, 11 months) that allow developers to build these facilities to specification and the facilities reverting back to the state at the end of the lease period. This is aimed at smaller properties such as police stations and some courts.

• • The Precinct Development Strategy - The DPWI is making strides to plan and integrate accommodation requirements within government precincts, targeting both urban and rural areas. Because of population growth mainly in metros, there is a deliberate infrastructure planning interventions in the metro areas. In this regard, most of the Government Head Offices are situated in Tshwane, which is a hybrid of state-owned and leased accommodation. In terms of state-owned 14, National Government Departments occupy 750 000m2 of accommodation.

The establishment of the Government Estate Development Framework will facilitate the development of a further 900 000m2 of state-owned development across the following Precincts in Tshwane: Northern Gateway, Civic Precinct, Caledonian Precinct, Government Boulevard, and Ceremonial Boulevard

Within the Northern Gateway precinct, Salvokop is a mixed-use precinct gazetted as Strategic Infrastructure Project. Salvokop is a state-owned mixed-use precinct located within the inner city of Tshwane. The development will focus on phase 1 to develop 360 000 m2 of Head Office Complex for four (4) National Government Departments. This flagship project is jointly executed by DPWI, the National Treasury, and the City of Tshwane.

• • The Refurbish, Operate, and Transfer Strategy (ROT) - The ROT is an offtake of the already well-established infrastructure financing scheme called Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT). Only the target for DPWI is already existing buildings that require funding to refurbish. BOT is a scheme or private finance initiative (PFI) or alternative procurement method in which a government contractually grants to a private sector entity a concession requiring the entity to obtain financing for the design, build, and operation of a public facility or infrastructure for a fixed period of time, during which the private entity can recover its costs of construction, plus profit, by charging fees or tools for its use and at the end of the concession period, transfer ownership and operation of the facility back to the government.

 

Reply:

The expenditure information as required will be separated as follows:

(a) Catering

Year	Total	(i) Minister	(ii) Deputy Minister	(iii) Officials of NDSD
2019/20	10 795 884	53 581	87 013	10 655 290
2020/21	144 900	2 497	59 635	82 768
2021/22	3 286 527	3 156	21 799	3 261 572
TOTAL	14 227 311	59 234	168 447	13 999 630

(b) Entertainment

Year	Total	(i) Minister	(ii) Deputy Minister	(iii) Officials of NDSD
2019/20	154 900	55 019	15 170	84 711
2020/21	85 782	18 073	5 430	62 279
2021/22	76 727	11 594	14 945	50 188
TOTAL	317 409	84 686	35 545	197 178

(c) Accommodation

Year	Total	(i) Minister	(ii) Deputy Minister	(iii) Officials of NDSD
2019/20	28 212 901	616 029	1 716 252	25 880 620
2020/21	7 364 301	381 849	1 849 220	5 133 232
2021/22	18 731 457	1 039 023	2 529 654	15 162 780
TOTAL	54 308 659	2 036 901	6 095 126	46 176 632

Reply:

The President has signed performance agreements with Ministers and Deputy Ministers to assist in the fulfilment of Section 91(2) of the Constitution, which states: “The President appoints the Deputy President and Ministers, assigns their powers and functions, and may dismiss them.”

The performance agreements provide clear guidance to Ministers and Deputy Ministers on their responsibilities and performance indicators. This enables the President to more effectively evaluate the fulfilment of these responsibilities, and, together with the Deputy President and respective Ministers and Deputy Ministers, identify measures to address areas of concern.

While these performance agreements and the process of assessment are matters between the President and the respective Ministers and Deputy Ministers, copies of these agreements have been made public. They are available on the Government website at: www.gov.za/ministers-performance-agreement

Reply:

a) (i) The Technical Committee for SASSA was appointed by the previous Minister of Social Development to assist SASSA in implementing the Constitutional Court judgment of 23rd March 2018 and to advise on business model review of SASSA.

Various Constitutional Court judgments in the course of 2017 made it clear that there were challenges with the existing contract with service providers for cash payment, without which SASSA would not be able to execute its mandate and the extra capacity for a period of time was required.

The Technical Committee was appointed from May 2018 until October 2018.

Hon Minister Susan Shabangu appointed the Technical Committee for Payments of Social Grants in accordance with Regulation 20 of Treasury Regulations published in terms of Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 (PFMA). Also, see the attached Affidavit to the Constitutional Court filed by the then Minister of Social Development.

a)(ii) The following names were given as part of the committee:

1.	Ms. Dipuo Peters	Former Minister of Transport and former Premier of the Northern Cape Provincial Government
2.	Adv Vusi Madonsela	Former Director-General of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and former Director-General of the Department of Social Development (Withdrew from the committee due to other commitments
3.	Ms Manoko Nchwe	Former Deputy National Commissioner: South African Police Service
4.	Ms.Totsie Memela	Non-Executive Chairman of Memela Pratt and Associates
5.	Mr.Selwyn Jehoma	Former Deputy Director-General of the Department of Social Development
6.	Ms Zodwa Manase	A Chartered Accountant to help with numbers
7.	Mr Sipho . Shezi	Former Special Adviser to the Minister of Social Development

(b) The roles of the Technical Committee for Payments of Social Grants is outlined in the attached Terms of Reference (See Attached Annexure B)

(c) The total amount paid to the Technical Committee for Payments of Social Grants was R2, 534 831,05 Please see below breakdown of payment per committee member:

Name of Committee Member	Total Amount Paid
Ms.Dipuo Peters	R468,503.05
Ms Manoko Nchwe	R449,040.00
Ms.Totsie Memela	R235,592.00
Mr.Selwyn Jehoma	R383,466.00
Ms.Zodwa Manase	R348,580.00
Mr.Sipho Shezi	R649,650.00

2. Yes, the Technical Committee for Payments of Social Grants submitted monthly reports (See attached Annexure C)

 

Reply:

Teen mothers who do not want their babies and / or are unable to care for them are assisted by providing them with the necessary support services and intensive counselling, where information on all the options available are explored with them, including taking care for their babies as a priority, with availability of resources such as social grants and family support system to assist them. Other options to consider is kinship care, foster care and adoption. Option counselling is provided to these teen mothers, to assist them to make an informed decision on what will be in their best interest and more particularly the best interest of their babies.

If adoption is opted for, adoption counselling is provided to the teen mothers. The Children’s Act 38 of 2005 in section 233 indicates that a child may be adopted only if consent for adoption has been given by each parent of the child and counselling must be provided before consent to the adoption is granted. Therefore, counselling assists teen mothers to understand what adoption is, its legal implications

including the right of the biological father of the child to consent for the adoption of the child. If adoption is finally being considered, teen mothers are well prepared about the process of signing of consent for adoption of their babies at the Children’s Court, where they are informed about the implications thereof and the 60 days period if they wish to withdraw their consent for adoption.

The Children’s Act in section 233 further provides that if the parent is a child, that parent has to be assisted by his or her guardian. Hence, teen mothers’ parents or guardians must be involved if possible in the counselling and when consent to the adoption is signed at Court. This allows the parents or guardians to support their children to ensure that they are making informed choices and understand the consequences of signing consent to the adoption of their babies. This ensures that teen mothers have the support system that would go beyond giving their babies up for adoption.

Support services are further provided to teen mothers after signing of consent to assist them to deal and cope with the reality of giving up their children for adoption and are referred to appropriate resources or other professionals to assist them, where necessary.

Reply:

Please note that PQ 1603 has been misdirected and should be transferred to the Department of Basic Education instead, as it does not fall within our mandate.

Reply:

The management of social grants, including the child support grant is done in terms of the Social Assistance Act, 2004. Section 19 of the Social Assistance Act empowers SASSA to appoint a person to investigate suspected abuse of a social grant. If the abuse is confirmed on objective grounds, SASSA may suspend payment of that grant, or appoint another person to receive the grant in respect of the beneficiary or child.

The determination as to the fitness of the care giver to care for the child is being dealt with in terms of section 150 of the Children’s Act, Act 38 of 2005. The investigation needs to be conducted by a social worker which will assist to compile a report that will guide the court to make a decision in terms of the caregiver’s fitness to care for the child.

Reply:

It is important to note that, despite downtime being registered against the system, the Social Pensions System (SocPen) has always been able to pay SASSA beneficiaries each month without fail.

The system had downtime related challenges which have been resolved since 15 March 2022. The system was continuously monitored since then and has been stable with no downtime being required. However, periodically downtime was caused by external factors such as load shedding or network related matters, which are dealt with on an individual, per occurrence basis. It usually also just affects a certain location and not the whole system.

A firm decision was taken to replace the system with a modern, progressive and technologically advanced system, which can be fully integrated with current SASSA systems and technologies.

In this regard SASSA is busy developing a roadmap to replace the old mainframe legacy system. The system replacement is amongst others, based on industry comparative studies that will guide and benchmark what other government and agencies are using for government social security benefits distribution and disbursement. By the end of the second quarter, the roadmap will be finalised.

Reply:

The role of the COVID-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) is to advise the Minister of Health with regards to managing cases of COVID-19 in the health system, interventions to control the spread of the disease, communication strategies, the research agenda and the economic impact on the health system.

The MAC develops advisories on specific issues in response to requests from the Minister for guidance on a particular issue or in response to new knowledge and developments as the pandemic evolves.

Following submission of an advisory to the Minister of Health, the Minister directs the response to the advisory which may include:

• activation, processing and implementation through internal departmental processes;

• engagement with other internal and external stakeholders;

• tabling at the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) or Cabinet for deliberation and decision making.

In reaching decisions, the NCCC relies on contributions from numerous sectors and other stakeholders. While decisions are guided by scientific advice and evidence, additional social, economic, legal and behavioural considerations are also taken into account.

Reply:

The Constitution sets out the role of the Chief Justice. Section 165(6) indicates that the Chief Justice is the head of the judiciary and exercises responsibility over the establishment and monitoring of norms and standards for the exercise of the judicial functions of all courts. He or she also heads the Constitutional Court, our apex court.

Section 174(1) of the Constitution requires that persons appointed as judicial officers be fit and proper persons, and that those appointed to the Constitutional Court must also be South African citizens. Section 174(2) further requires that the judiciary must reflect broadly the racial and gender composition of South Africa and that this must be considered when judicial officers are appointed.

These are among the factors that were relevant to my choice of who should be the next Chief Justice.

In addition, I considered the great value in ensuring continuity and certainty in the leadership of the judiciary, and the important role the judiciary plays in ensuring trust and faith in state institutions.

I had the benefit of the inputs of all political parties represented in Parliament, and the contents and outcomes of the interviews conducted by the Judicial Service Commission, who were consulted as required by the Constitution. The Constitution does not give primacy to any of those entities and persons that I am enjoined to consult.

I exercised my Constitutionally granted discretion, taking into account all factors, in coming to the determination that Justice Raymond Zondo is the best person to be our next Chief Justice.

Reply:

(1) The current legislative regime does not provide for the matter in question. There is no legal provision for baby savers The Department’s policy position does not support this option because are sufficient measures in place to mitigate abandoned of children. Temporary safe care is one of such measures in place that is regulated in terms of the Children’s Act (Act No. 38 of 2005).

Furthermore, as already indicated, child abandonment is a criminal offence as it puts the lives of children in danger if such children are not safely left with relatives or even given up for adoption. The spirit of the Children’s Act is to care and protect the child whilst upholding the child’s best interests. Abandonment of children already has long term negative impact on the child whether abandoned safely or not. Therefore, abandonment of children as in all categories of abuse, neglect and exploitation of children remains a criminal offence.

(2) The absence of laws regarding havens does not affect the children’s right to life whatsoever. Right to life should come naturally and in a legal way and not be forced by breaking existing laws to have it fulfilled. In fact, the systems and processes referred to in paragraph 1, such as offering a child for adoption are more protective of the right to life than havens do.

Reply:

a) The total number of beneficiaries (that is people who actually received the social grants) as at March 2022 is 12 787 866.

The number of children benefitting from the grants is 13 610 113.

(i) and (ii) The age and gender split for the 12 787 866 social grant beneficiaries is indicated in the table below:

(iii) SASSA does not collect information along racial lines.

Reply:

The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Social Development has deployed three hundred and eighty-two (382) social workers to provide psychosocial support services to individuals and families in the flood-stricken areas.

Reply:

1(a) In the Western Cape, SASSA is busy with a process to establish 4 additional offices. Procurement Instructions have been issued to the National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) for the establishment of these offices, which are two (2) in Khayelitsha and two (2) in Gugulethu. These areas have been prioritised as a result of the high number of applicants in these areas. To date NDPW has signed one (1) lease for an office in Khayelitsha. The lessor will be constructing a new building for SASSA. The other 3 sites received non-responsive bids and NDPW will have to go out on tender for these areas specifically once again.

(b) The staff establishment will be reconsidered, once the outcome of the Business Process Re-Engineering exercise (BPR), which is underway is concluded. The exercise was to consider the current organisational structure and review staff capacity in order to ensure that SASSA can deliver on its mandate. However, it should be borne in mind that government is on a drive to contain the structure and not to grow it. This has been one of the considerations in the decision to automate many of the processes for grant applications and reviews. The automation should reduce the need for people to report in person at SASSA offices, but to ensure that the face to face channel is available for those who do not have access to the internet for online processes, or otherwise require the interaction with a staff member.

2. The Region is in the process of securing funding for opening of 102 sites linked to community halls and civic centres. The procurement process will be initiated once the funding has been sourced.

Reply:

a) The tables below provide the detail of foster child and child support grants which were lapsed as the child turned 18 years of age for the calendar years from 2017 to 2021. It should be noted that the child support grants lapse at the end of the month in which the child turns 18, while the foster child grant lapses at the end of the year in which the child turns 18 years. The number of foster child grants has excluded the numbers of foster children who returned to the system, as they are still in an educational institution.

b) The table below indicates the projected number of both child support grants and foster child grants which will lapse in 2022.

Reply:

At the beginning of the Sixth Administration, on the occasion of the Budget Vote of the Presidency 2019/20, I said that public policy that must be evidence-based and effectively coordinated.

The Presidency established a Public Sector Policy Development and Research Network in March 2020 as a platform to capacitate policy practitioners on the use of evidence in policy making. This network is represented by policy practitioners, researchers and legal services from national and provincial government, and municipalities will be included in the near future

The Presidency, through the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), has an Evidence Mapping System that assists departments with mapping research work and evidence from a wide range of credible sources.

The National School of Government offers training to officials on evidence-based policy making and the National Policy Development Framework.

Finally, the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment System assists in ensuring that early drafting of policies, Bills and Regulations are supported by relevant evidence.

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

(1) No, Dr. A. Moemi is appointed as an Acting Director-General for a period of six (6) months in accordance with Section 32 (2) (a) and (b) (ii) of the Public Service Act 30 of 2007 as amended read with Regulation 63 sub regulation (2) and (3) of the Public Service Regulations 2016. In the event that his appointment as the Acting Director-General is not extended beyond the six months, then Dr Moemi will assume his position as the Head of the Property Management Trading Entity,

(a) The term for acting is six (6) months, renewable.

(b) The position was not advertised, however

(c) Dr Moemi is appointed on contract additional to the establishment for a period of 12 months in accordance with Regulation 57 sub regulation (2) to (6) of the Public Service Regulations 2016.

(d) Dr Moemi is an employee of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, appointed on contract additional to the establishment, hence he was considered for appointment as Acting Director-General.

(2)

(a) The difference between the salary of Dr Moemi and Adv. Vukela is R155 217.00.

(b) No, Dr. Moemi is appointed in the Department as Head of the PMTE and requested to act due to his extensive experience as a Director-General. It is further due to a need to strengthen the GRC Branch with the return of DDG Imtiaz Fazel to his original post. Lastly, it will be premature to plan on the possible outcome of the disciplinary proceeding of Adv. Vukela because that process is handled by an independent chairperson and the outcome cannot be predetermined.

Reply:

a)  (i) The full Hydraulic assessment of the Pipeline from Welbedacht to Bloemfontein was conducted in February 2011 and a further assessment was conducted in October 2019 at one trajectory (Dehoek to Uitkyk) after a pipe failure occurred on that part of the pipeline.

(ii) The findings on the 2011 report indicated that:

• there were infrastructure components that required refurbishment,
• There were leaks on the pipeline which had to be addressed via the Bloem Water’s winter preventative maintenance shutdowns.

b) Since the inspections were conducted, Bloem Water has done the following as part of a proactive maintenance plan:

• Established a Pipeline Reaction Team in 2015
• Reworked its Preventative Maintenance Strategy
• Established its inhouse pipeline manufacturing workshop which assists with pipeline components and quick turnaround time of maintenance work on the main pipeline

These measures have assisted Bloem Water to reduce real water losses on its strategic infrastructure to less than 13% for the past 8 financial years. Furthermore, three years has passed since the last pipe burst on this 48-year-old pipeline.

In addition, Bloem Water is currently implementing the construction project of a mitigating parallel line which is 33.7km long as phase 1. This pipeline will be in operation by July 2022 and will further preserve the status of reliable uninterrupted bulk water supply to the Mangaung Metro Municipality. The new pipeline will replace the problematic portion of the mainline which frequently experience pipe bursts. Phase 2 of the remaining 72km is currently under planning. This pipeline will replace the old line from Welbedacht Dam to Bloemfontein, once completed.

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Reply:

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Reply:

(a) (i) The organogram makes provision for 73 water engineers and (ii) 34 structural engineers.

(b) Vacancies as of 28 February 2022

• Process controllers: 13
• Electrical Artisan: 1
• Mechanical Artisan: 1

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Reply:

a) 76 posts of the 166 posts have been vacant for more than 4 months.

b) The afore said 76 vacancies above 4 months are due to the following reasons:

(a) Grievances: candidates participating have the right to invoke grievance procedures for investigation if they are not satisfied with any element in the process of the recruitment, selection and appointment.

(b) Withdrawal of shortlisted candidate: this often leads to a prolonged time of recruitment and affects the DEL’s ability to complete the recruitment process on time.

(c) Re-advertisement: this would be done in instances where the interview process failed to obtain suitable candidate. In addition, there could have been failure to obtain suitable candidates during the shortlisting phase

(d) Inadequate HR capacity: IES depends on HRM to support the Branch with regards to Selection and Recruitment processes.

Reply:

(a) According to the National Treasury 2020-21 annual report on non-compliance with payment of suppliers within 30 days, only eight national departments paid all their invoices within the stipulated 30-day period. During the 2020-21 financial year, out of 41 national departments, 33 national departments experienced challenges in paying all their valid invoices within 30 days.

The 2020-21 annual report in comparison to the 2019-20 annual report, highlights an improvement in the following departments, in terms of decreasing the number of invoices older than 30 days and not paid:

• Cooperative Government
• Home Affairs
• International Relations and Cooperation
• Public Works including PMTE
• Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities
• Employment and Labour
• Justice and Constitutional Development

Although the department of Public Works and Infrastructure (including PMTE) reflected the highest improvement, it also reflected the highest number of invoices still at hand as at the end of 2020/2021 financial year.

In comparison to the 2019/2020 annual report, the following departments regressed in the number of invoices paid after 30 days

• Mineral Resource and Energy
• Police
• Water and Sanitation

The department of Water and Sanitation reflected the highest regression in the number of invoices older than 30 days not paid and also recorded the highest number of invoices at hand as at the end of 2020/2021 financial year.

As at the end of the 2020-21 financial year the following two departments contributed to 95% of invoices older than 30 days and not paid i.e. the Department of Water and Sanitation including trading account (56%) and the Department of Public Works including Property Management Trading Entity (39%).

From the provincial perspective, as at the end of 2020/2021 financial year, the Gauteng province recorded 20 911 invoices, which is 50% of the total number of invoices older than 30 days and not paid. This is followed by the Eastern Cape province with 12 651 invoices i.e 30% of outstanding invoices. Although the Gauteng province contributed the highest number of unpaid invoices, the Eastern Cape Province recorded the highest Rand Value in this regard. The other provinces that contributed to invoices older than 30 day and not paid are North West (9%), KwaZulu Natal (5%), Free State (3%) and Limpopo (2%).

Whilst the DPME has been monitoring the performance of government on payment of suppliers in line with the 2015 Cabinet mandate, it is the mandate of the National Treasury to ensure that the government departments and entities adhere to their financial obligations in terms of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and regulations. Treasury Instruction Note Number 34 requires departments to implement manual or electronic systems and processes that will enable departments to track invoices from the time they are received at the relevant cost centres to the time that a payment is made.

The DPME continues to monitor and report on this issue through its established monitoring tools. To this end, it has been engaging with the worst performing departments to find sustainable solutions to their challenges. Efforts are currently underway to facilitate implementation of support measures in the department of Water and Sanitation, Public Works and Infrastructure, and the Eastern Cape Province.

Thank You.

Reply:

The size and complexity of a project like Limpopo Central Hospital (LCH) requires a consolidated and concerted effort between various role players to eliminate risk and to keep the project on track, so that it can ultimately benefit the community and students it serves. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the envisaged consultative processes for the LCH could not be undertaken between the relevant stakeholders due to the lockdown, lack of access to engagements with design consultants and the various Departmental Stakeholders. The consultative processes were thus delayed in finalising Stage Gate 3.

The project is however, currently in Stage 4: Design Documentation. The National Department of Health (NDoH) requested a Gateway Review process in line with the Framework for Infrastructure Delivery and Procurement Management (FIDPM) in December 2021 for this stage gate deliverables. The reviewal of Stage 4.1 was not a mandatory process but done to reduce the risk associated with the project during construction and eliminate any unforeseen costs. The objective of the review process was to ensure that the project delivers value for money, that any design related issues are appropriately addressed and that the overall project structure and governance is sound to take the project through construction. The Gateway review process have been concluded and the project is expected to go out on tender on approval of the Stage Gate 4 deliverables. The construction process is set to start in Q3 of this financial year.

END.

Reply:

The Department of Water and Sanitation uses the Green Drop Report as a performance baseline for the municipal wastewater fraternity to inform appropriate regulatory intervention with the objective to facilitate improvement. This is included in the Department’s Water Services Improvement Programme which includes sustainable intervention with the objective of ensuring a turnaround in the perfromance of the Municipal Water Services Sector.

The Green Drop Performance trends will be used to determine repetitive poor performance, to inform a more drastic approach to ensure a turn-around. This could include facilitating long-term intervention by either a capacitated water board or any other suitable mode of sanitation services support.

The results of the Green Drop Report dictates that wastewater services be a primary focus area of the government in targetted areas. Therefore, national government will ensure that grant funding allocated to the water sector is allocated with the objective of restoring the functionality of exisiting wastewater infrastructure according to the findings of this report.

The determination of the “Very Rough Order of Estimates” (VROOM), which informed the amount referenced in your question, was done to give an estimation of the capital requirement for the functionality restoration drive. This will be effected with the support of National Treasury.

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Reply:

DRAFT REPLY

The National Efficiency Enhancement Committee (NEEC) and the Provincial Efficiency Enhancement Committees (PEEC) are judicial governance stakeholder forums which are chaired by the Chief Justice and the Judges President of the Divisions of the High Court respectively. The request for information as contained in the question by the Honourable member has been referred to the Chief Justice for consideration.

Reply:

Both Gqeberha and East London factories are part of Supported Employment Enterprise’s network of 13 factories located across 8 of the 9 provinces of the country. All these factories receive a proportional share of the budget from the annual transfer of R160 from National Treasury via the Department of Employment and Labour Program 3, Public Employment Services and is also expected to generate revenue through manufacturing and sale of goods and services within its portfolio of textile, wood and steel.

1(a)(i) The steps taken to improve the financial positions of these entities include the following:

• During the financial year 2021/22, we embarked on a rigorous campaign within government to persuade Treasury to reconsider current procurement regulations that require the entity to compete for government contracts just like most businesses in the open labour market that have the flexibility to source other cheaper international inputs, whilst SEE entities are restricted to follow normal supply chain regulations and processes. We look forward to the introduction of the New Preferential Procurement regulations that are going to protect SEE and other similar organisations, Youth, Women, SMMEs and other Vulnerable Groups suppliers.
• We have applied to the National Treasury to grant exemptions in procurement of bulk materials and conclusion of supply of materials for three year contracts and these were granted to protect them from fluctuating raw material prices.
• We have submitted budget bids to Treasury to increase the SEE allocation to fund the maintenance of its decaying infrastructure without success and we hope that with the improvement in the country’s economic conditions, the Treasury will assist us to renovate these factories.

(ii) We have taken a conscious decision to encourage all our Labour centres and entities that form part of the Department of Employment and Labour to procure their furniture and textile needs from SEEs

• We have approached Treasury over the years to grant approval for veriment of under expenditure to SEE to bail them out in improving staff and factory worker’s salaries and other conditions of employment, their Information Technology and Communication systems and financial management.
• We have seconded staff where vacancies arose in key strategic positions to maintain their operations

(b)(i) As part of our strategy to sustain SEEs,

- we have encouraged staff to diversify production and produce goods that are directed at members of the public as a new market.

- The Director General approved the New SEE marketing strategy that include targeted approaches to Provincial, District and local municipalities.

- We have proposed SEE governance and administration changes in the current Employment Services Amendment Bill that is undergoing public consultation process.

(ii) It is our view that if all the above measures are supported and successfully implemented, they will assist us to increase the intake of more people with disabilities from 1350 to over 4000 as these factories have the necessary capacity to accommodate additional numbers. We will also reconsider our expansion plans to open another factory in Mpumalanga and our footprint elsewhere where there is an uptake of their goods and services.

We will also use the provisions of the Employment Equity to persuade companies to recruit some of the SEE employees into formal establishment as part of their integration into the formal economy and to generally improve their standard of living.

Since SEE operates under the auspices of the Department of Employment and Labour, the Department is leading the efforts to encourage other Departments to use government’s purchasing power to execute employment equity, which stipulates that at least 2% of the total workforce must be from the designated group of persons with disabilities, as for SEE this kind of support becomes indispensable as the entity employs 100% persons with disabilities in all their factory operations.

Reply:

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Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure

(a) and (b) I have been informed that the list and breakdown of the capacities of the Council members of the SACAP is as follows:

1. Mr Charles Ntsindiso Nduku (Professional Architect): President of the Council, member of the Transformation Committee and Recognition of Prior Learning Committee.
2. Ms Letsabisa Shongwe (Professional Architect): Vice President of the Council; Chairperson of the Professional Fees Committee; Chairperson of Stakeholder Relations Committee and Vice Chairperson of the Transformation Committee.
3. Ms Mandisa Pepeta Daki (Professional Architectural Technologist): Council member, Chairperson of the Investigating Committee and Transformation Committee and Vice Chairperson of the Stakeholder Relations Committee and member of the Continuing Professional Development Committee.
4. Mr Vusi Phailane (Professional Architect & State Representative): Council member, Chairperson of the Identification Committee and member of the Investigating Committee and Recognition of Prior Learning Committee.
5. Mr Kevin Bingham (Professional Architect), Council member, Chairperson of the Education Committee and Recognition of Prior Learning Committee.
6. Mr Mohammed Allie Mohidien (Professional Architectural Draughtperson), Council member, Chairperson of Registration Committee and member of the Identification of Work Committee and Recognition of Prior Learning Committee.
7. Mr Lufuno Motsherane (Public representative), Council member, Chairperson of the REMCO, member of the Audit & Risk Committee and Investigating Committee.
8. Dr Sitsabo Dlamini (Professional Senior Architectural Technologist): Council member and Chairperson of the Continuing Professional Development Committee and member of the Recognition of Prior Learning Committee.
9. Mr Nick Nichols (Public Representative): Council member, member of the REMCO and Audit & Risk Committee.

Reply:

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Reply:

There were no incidents of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault cases reported in the past three financial years, and the status quo remains since 1 April 2021 to date in my office.

Thank You.

Reply:

(1) Noting the extension given to Statistics South Africa for the completion of Census 2022, what are the implications of the funding that was set aside for the exercise;

At this stage Stats SA still envisages to be within the budgeted funds for the Census Programme. The major costs that will be incurred as a result of the extension are vehicle hire, salaries for field staff and IT related costs. Due to the challenges experienced with data collection systems and recruitment, data collection did not commence as planned and was implemented in a staggered manner. As a result, expenditure for the previously mentioned items have been below what was budgeted. Accordingly reduced expenditure is expected for 21/22 and higher expenditure is expected for 22/23. As the bulk of these activities will be straddling the end of the financial year there could be a possibility that allocated funding would need to be rolled over. Engagements with National Treasury have begun in this regard.

2

(2) whether there has been an increase of the budget; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, with what amount has the budget increased?

No increase has been tabled for the Census budget. Close monitoring is in place and a reassessment will be done as Stats SA gets close to completing the census data collection to assess if any additional resources are required to deal with the tail end in this regard.

Thank You.

Reply:

The National Department of Health is consulting with the Gauteng Provincial Department of Health to source the relevant details in this regard. The Gauteng Provincial Department has been requested to provide the Ministry with the required information to enable the Minister to provide the response to the Honourable Member’s question. The response will be submitted as soon as information has been obtained from the Gauteng Provincial Department of Health.

END.

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

I have been informed by the Department that the tender in question was not processed by the DPWI and as such, the department is not in a position to respond to the specific questions asked. The tender was processed by the Department of Justice.

Reply:

Attached find here: Reply

Reply:

Treasury Bills (t-bills) are held by every commercial bank in the country that holds a banking license since they form part of the High-Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA) which are required by the Prudential Authority. These assets allow banks to meet their short-term liquidity requirements and can be used as collateral for central bank operations, as well as benchmarking for pricing financial assets. The same banks may hold both t-bills and bonds on behalf of clients in their stockbroking or wealth management units in both discretionary, non-discretionary and segregated income portfolios. For the latter reason, it would be near impossible for the National Treasury (NT) to determine what rate investors bought the bonds at and who the clients are.

Long term loans are bought by the nine primary dealers in the primary market on behalf of insurers, asset managers and hedge funds on a weekly basis. Furthermore, these bonds are then traded in the secondary market where they are bought and sold by different entities. The nine primary dealers are:

1. ABSA
2. HSBC
3. NEDBANK
4. CITIBANK
5. STANDARD BANK
6. INVESTEC BANK
7. DEUTSCHE BANK
8. RMB
9. JP MORGAN

To qualify as a primary dealer, applying banks are required to comply with capital adequacy requirements per the banks act as well as additional NT requirements. These banks would buy these bonds at different rates on a weekly basis and distribute these bonds for a turn in the secondary markets both on exchange and over the counter which also impacts the rates at which the bonds trade. The interest rates and amounts at which the bonds are auctioned in the primary market are available on the NT website on a weekly basis however, the amount that each bank buys in the auction is not public information since this information is sensitive for the ongoing auction process. There are no terms associated with each bond purchase except the obligation to pay the interest rate and principal when it is due on NT’s part.

The ultimate holders of the bonds can categorized as follows:

1. Monetary Institutions

        (a) Banks

        (b) SARB

2. Insurers

(a) Long Term Insurers

(b) Short Term Insurers

3. Pension Funds

(a) PIC

(b) Private self-administered pension funds

(c) Official Pension Funds

4. Other Financial Institutions

(a) Unit Trusts

(b) Participation Mortgage bond schemes

(c) Financial Public enterprises

The details of the ultimate holders are not recorded by the NT since the NT’s purview is the primary market. It is in the secondary market where these bonds bought and sold by various institutions. The JSE, Strate and the institutions themselves would be best placed to provide details in terms of the quantity of bonds they hold since they transact both on and off-exchange. Market data systems like Bloomberg, Reuters would also provide details for the reported market.

It is worth remembering is that these institutions would themselves be holding these bonds on behalf of individual investors or policy holders who cannot be legally disclosed as per FICA and POPIA act. The holdings change regularly owing to the needs of each category of holder. For example, insurers would buy long term debt to meet long term obligations however they may need to liquidate short- and medium-term bond holdings if claims rose suddenly. Pensions funds would rebalance their portfolios regularly based on the investment mandate of their portfolios and whether or not they are managing an external portfolio. For this reason and many others, it is impractical for NT to quantify how much each institutional holder owns at a point in time or what interest rate they are receiving since they would hold bonds along the yield curve.

Institutions also frequently engage in interest rate swaps to manage their risk which would transfer those rates to other entities. Retail bonds are held by individual investors whose names cannot be disclosed. Retail bond interest rates are available on the retail bonds website along with the terms and conditions of each retail bond.

The National Treasury publishes monthly detailed information on outstanding bonds, redemption dates, redemption amounts, and coupon rates can be found on the National Treasury's investor website. The same details can be found in the SARB’s quartely bulletin.

http://investor.treasury.gov.za/pages/default.aspx

Table 7.5 of the 2022 Budget Review reflects the international financing institution borrowings. The table provides information on the institution, disbursement date, interest rate, terms (years), grace period (years), and amount (billion). From the table, the borrowing has only been long-term in nature, with no short-term loans being entered into.

Reply:

Attached find here: Reply

Reply:

\a) In terms of the categories in the UIF Database, there is no specific category for logistics industry. The Logistics industry appear under various sectors within the Database and the exact number cannot be identified which might result in inaccurate information, hence the number of employees under logistic cannot be provided.

b) The Compensation Fund registers employers and not employees; and respectively receives claims for employees as registered and submitted by their employers. With regards to the respective industry; there are 61 103 employers registered with the Compensation Fund within the sub-class category for the logistics industry.

Reply:

Description	Deputy Minister	Office of the Deputy Minister	Total
a. Catering	0	58,292.60	58,292.60
b. Entertainment	0	0	0
c. Accomodation	250, 570.48	1,078,702.87	1,329,273.35
TOTAL	250,570.48	1,136,995.47	1,387,565.95

Thank You.

Reply:

In the financial year 2020/2021, the Presidential Hotline (PH) received a total number of 9305 cases. In 2021/2022, up to the end of the 3rd Quarter, the PH received a total of 4693 cases.

Since its inception in 2009, the Presidential Hotline has always solely dealt with service delivery matters. Service delivery issues are often intertwined with governance issues and therefore not disaggregated when accounting or reporting on cases received. In relation to corruption cases, these are referred to the Office of the Public Service Commission as the DPME does not have the investigative capacity.

REPLY: Question 2

a) Once a complaint has been assigned to a department, it is expected that it must be resolved within the 25 working days as prescribed by the DPSA. Each stakeholder manager within DPME (Presidential Hotline) tracks and monitors cases assigned to departments using the Reporting platform portal to see if the number of open cases is reduced. Stakeholder managers also use spreadsheets to track performance as well as to inform departments on any outstanding complaints. Monthly feedback reports are shared with departments in order to provide a snapshot of how they are performing (resolving complaints) as well as any outstanding matters for investigation.

(b) They obtain feedback via telephone or email.

Phone: If the complainant is requesting for information on government services, such information is provided immediately at the point of contact (by the call centre agent).

Email: Once a complex case has been completed by the investigating Department, feedback is provided to the complainant via email.

NB: The method of feedback is dependent on the choice made by the complainant on how they would prefer to be contacted.

Mostly, feedback is provided telephonically. However, the DPME is able to monitor whether feedback was indeed provided to the complainant and this is done through the Customer Satisfaction Surveys.

Thank You.

Reply:

Attached find here: Reply

Reply:

a) There is no regulation for Late Registration of birth for abandoned and/or orphaned children. However, abandoned and/or orphaned children are registered in terms of Section 12 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act (Act 51 of 1992), Regulation 9 of the regulation on Registration of Births and Deaths (2014) as well as Sections 46 and 156 of the Children’s Act, Act 38 of 2005.

b) Neither the Births and Deaths Registration Act nor the regulation on Registration of Births and Deaths specify which types of relatives may register an orphaned or abandoned child. However, the Births and Deaths Registration Act as amended (Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Act, Act No 18 of 2010) points out that any person other than the parents of such child who registers a child must be prescribed. Section 46 and 156 of the Children’s Act. Act 38 of 2005 deals with the designation of a person as a care giver of a child.

c) According to Section 9(1) of the Births and Deaths Registrations Act, 1992 a notice of birth of abandoned or orphaned child in terms of section 12 of the Act must be given on Form DHA-24 illustrated in Annexure 1A by a social worker within 60 days of obtaining a court order in terms of section 156 of the Children’s Act, and must be accompanied by-

• A court order issued by the children’s court;
• A certified copy of the identity document or valid passport and visa or permit of the social worker:
• Where available a certified copy of the identity document or passport and visa or permit of the parents of a child
• Where available, a copy of the death certificate of the parents of a child; and
• A social workers’ report that was presented to the children’s court

END

 

Reply:

I wish to advise the Honourable Member that the only SIU report that I am aware of, is the one that implicates the current SASSA CEO of alleged involvement in corrupt activities. Upon receipt of the final report, I made it available to the implicated official, the SASSA CEO to allow her an opportunity to state their cases in response to the SIU investigation and findings, as per the provision of our laws.

In addition, the Department is currently in legal consultation with the SIU and its investigators who have offered their assistance as we initiate the disciplinary process with the view to engage and implement the next steps.

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

1. I have been informed by the Department that the old Tennis Courts located on erven 6361, 6362, 6348-Re and Erf 6350-Re do not fall under the jurisdiction of the National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure but that of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape.

2. The National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure is not aware of any criminal activity on this site as the site does not fall under the jurisdiction of this Department.

3. Any enquiries received by the Department should accordingly referred to the Provincial Government for further attention.

4. The Provincial Department of Transport and Public Works will be in the best position to respond to this question as the property is under its jurisdiction.

Reply:

The department has worked with the provinces to do the following in order to ensure that the impact of Covid-19 is not as severe as the past four waves:

• Conducting the Intra-Action Review to identify the lessons learned from the previous waves and to develop plans to identified close the gaps, while also enhancing those areas that the department did well.
• The development of the resurgence plans which is based on the lessons learned from the four waves.
• The plan is working on the Integration of Covid-19 into the health system, so that it must be managed as part of the mainstream.
• The department is encouraging the South African Public to get vaccinated, as the best barrier to slowing down the impact of the pandemic while also minimising the severity in the event of infections.
• Integrating the vaccine into the PHC services, to avoid creating silos and vertical programmes.
• The plan is also to develop the Recovery and Rebuilding of the health systems for resilience.

END.

Reply:

a) 

2022 National Education Excellence Awards Categories and Criteria
Category	Criteria
1. Special Recognition Awards	Districts showing consistent National Senior Certificate (NSC) performance of above 85% (2019 – 2021) Quintile 1 - 3 Secondary schools showing consistent NSC performance at 100% (2017 – 2021)
2. Top Performing District: 2021 NSC Highest Percentage Pass	Districts serving up to 400 schools Districts serving more than 400 schools
3. Top Performing District:  selected Quality Indicators – 2021 NSC Highest score: Overall Passes; Bachelors; Mathematics; and Physical Science	Districts serving up to 400 schools Districts serving more than 400 schools
4. Most Improved District  2020- 2021 NSC	Highest percentage improvement
5. Top Performing District: NSC Bachelor Passes	Highest Percentage NSC Bachelor passes: 2019- 2021
6. Top Performing District: NSC Mathematics and Physical Science Passes	Highest Number of  NSC Mathematics and Physical Science passes: 2019 – 2021
7. Excellence in District Leadership and Management	District with excellence in: Management of the district  Innovations in the district Management of partnerships
8. Excellence in Primary Schools Learning Outcomes Support	District with excellence in: Clear strategies to support improved quality of Grade R practices Clear strategies to improve quality in Mathematics teaching: Grade R-6 Strategies to improve language teaching in all languages: Grade R-6 Innovations to improve reading in all schools: Grade R-6
9. Top Performing Public Schools: 2021 NSC Highest percentage pass	Quintile 5 Quintile 4 Quintile 3 Quintile 2 Quintile 1
10. Best Full Service School 2021	Full Service School that has shown the most commitment to inclusion including: School policy on inclusion;  Increased and successful accommodation of learners with diverse needs and learners with physical disabilities/ impairments; Functional School Based Support Team; and Evidence of steps taken to ensure physical access for all learners, including transport
11. Special Ministerial Award	Districts with the highest annual average percentage improvement between 2018 and 2021 in the number of Black African and Coloured candidates achieving 60% or more in Mathematics and Physical Science

 

b) 

Reasons per Category Criteria
Criteria category	Reasons
1	To acknowledge and recognise districts for consistent NSC performance of above 85% over the last three years; and Club 100 Quintile 1 - 3 schools for consistent NSC performance at 100% over the last five years.
2	To reward small and large districts (separately by size comparison) that obtained the highest overall percentage passes.
3	To reward small and large districts (separately by size comparison) that obtained the highest sum score of selected quality indicators viz. Overall passes; Bachelors; Mathematics; and Physical Science.
4	To reward districts that obtained the highest percentage improvement in the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic
5	To reward districts that produced the highest percentage Bachelor passes over the last three years.
6	To reward districts that produced the highest number of  learners that pass NSC Mathematics and Physical Science over the last three years
7	To reward districts that exhibited excellent leadership and management practices in 2021.
8	To reward districts that showed excellent approaches and implemented best strategies towards improving the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy.
9	To reward public ordinary schools by quintile for excellent performance in the 2021 NSC taking into account their context including the socio-economic factors.
10	To reward Full Service schools that implemented excellent practices towards the achievement of imperatives on the policy on inclusion.
11	To to reward districts for improvement in their achievement levels especially among black learners in the gateway subjects of Mathematics and Physical Science in the NSC pre- and during- the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

c) The National Education Excellence Awards focus on rewarding excellence in performance, management and leadership, policy implementation, improvement strategies and innovation across the General Education and Training (GET) and Further Education and Training (FET) bands, thus going beyond the scope of the NSC results.

Reply:

a) The Department has received numerous responses from society to the published regulations.

b) The closing period for the submission of public comments has been extended by a further three months ending 5th August 2022. Consequently, the Department is not in position to furnish the numbers that are opposing or endorsing the adoption of the specified draft regulations.

END.

Reply:

The department has identified the following as areas needing urgent intervention to improve the quality of public health in the Republic, which is as a result of the lessons learned from Covid-19. All key pillars which were captured in the first surge and subsequent resurgence plans, have been identified as in need of attention and they are:

a) Key are of lessons	b) Steps taken to implement the identified improvements
Leadership and governance	The provinces are working on various interventions such as the process of conducting mortality audits across the country. This will assist us to know what were the underlying causes of high rate of deaths of many people during Covid-19 The department is also working on the improvement in the management of PHC services, through various interventions which will include the collaboration with school of government and other training institutions. The department is working with the provinces to integrate the Covid-19 management into the health systems management.
Infrastructure	The department is working on the capacity building programme for human resource capacity in the district hospitals where there is an infrastructure that was improved to cater for Covid-19 patients. The department has worked on the repurposing of the infrastructure to support the delivery of services.
Human Resources	The department is working on the process to increase number of nurses in the specialist areas to build on the capacity that was made available during Covid-19
Health Technology	The equipment that was procured for Covid-19 response will be made available for use in the hospitals. This is part of the Covid-19 legacy projects.
Diseases surveillance	The department has published the regulations that are preparing the health system to improve the surveillance and response to the notifiable medical conditions. The department has extended the closing date for the submission of comments by a further three months, meaning that the department is prepared to listen to as many voices and views as possible.

END.

Reply:

As part of the Integrated Management of childhood disease services, two Data Elements are monitored for malnutrition deaths. These Data Elements are:

• Moderate acute malnutrition death under 5 years

• Severe acute malnutrition death under 5 years

a) The total number of children who have died nationally in public hospitals as a result of malnutrition in the past three years is as follows:

Data Element	FY 2019/20	FY 2020/21	FY 2021/22
Moderate acute malnutrition death under 5 years	166	207	238
Severe acute malnutrition death under 5 years	868	568	771
Total (National)	1034	775	1009

The above table shows a drop in malnutrition deaths in 2020/21, however, the 2021/22 deaths are similar to the pre-COVD-19 deaths of 2019/20.

b) The Total breakdown in each province is as follows:

Data Element	Province	FY 2019/20	FY 2020/21	FY 2021/22
Moderate acute malnutrition death under 5 years	Eastern Cape Province	24	20	20
	Free State Province	21	7	8
	Gauteng Province	34	45	45
	KwaZulu-Natal Province	33	83	81
	Limpopo Province	27	13	21
	Mpumalanga Province	11	24	29
	Northern Cape Province	0	8	11
	North West Province	14	6	19
	Western Cape Province	2	1	4
Severe acute malnutrition death under 5 years	Eastern Cape Province	149	72	127
	Free State Province	65	50	86
	Gauteng Province	94	75	120
	KwaZulu-Natal Province	176	164	187
	Limpopo Province	124	70	82
	Mpumalanga Province	60	52	59
	Northern Cape Province	38	21	33
	North West Province	154	56	62
	Western Cape Province	8	8	15
	Total (National)	1034	775	1009

END.

Reply:

1. The Naki 2018 and Constitutional Court 2021 judgment was brought to the attention of all Provincial Managers for further communicating to local offices via WhatsApp on 23 September 2021. Print out of the WhatsApp communication is hereto attached. WhatsApp is one of the various communication channels the Civic Services Branch has established to deal with urgent matters that affect daily operations.

2. The revised Birth Registration Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) is hereto attached. Training on the new SOP took place between 17 January 2022 to 4 April 2022.

3. As indicated in response 1 above, the Home Affairs front offices have been informed as per the attached WhatsApp message and the court order is being implemented by offices as alluded to in slide 9 of the presentation made to the Portfolio Committee on 2 March 2022. Further to this, the department is in the process of drafting regulations on the registration of births and deaths with the view to align it to the court order.

END